Have Faith In Me
by DMarieLara
Summary: "God controls many things but he never takes away our free will. We are responsible for what happened, not him. Everything.    A story i wrote based on a story my dad told me :


Have Faith In Me

Before I start this story,let me explain why i'm telling it. My daughter, Dallas, comes up to me a couple of days ago and asks for a story  
>talking about who's been the most influential person in my life and what lessons had I learned from them. I guess she's doing some assignment for her English class where I tell her a story and she has to write another story based on mine. I thought the topic I picked would be best because lately she's been questioning God and her faith. I mean she comes up to me and asks why God didn't stop the holocaust even though he controls everything. It kind of caught me off guard because it was the first time i'd heard any question like that from her. I processed her question and then told her, "God controls many things but he never takes away our free will. We are responsible for what happened, not him. Everything bad, like the holocaust, happened because man is evil." After I told her this she wasn't as confused, but I could tell she still had questions by her eyes. In a way I felt bad because I couldn't give her the evidence and answers she wanted to the questions I knew were inevitably going to be asked. I wish I could give her all the answers she wanted. I don't want her to think God is evil or doesn't exist or anything like that. I don't want her to be confused about God.<p>

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><p>So now onto the story...<p>

"Come sit down Mija and let me tell you my story." I say as I sit on my bed.

She walks in and sits down with her legs crossed and her eyes fully focused on me. When she does this I know she truly cares about what I say. The admiring look in those big brown eyes remind me of when she was younger and reassure me she's still my little girl. I smile to myself.

"The person that's been the biggest influence in my life was a man named Luis Lopez. I was nineteen years old and he was a friend of my dads. We were talking one day and, to this day I still have no idea how we got on the subject, but I asked him why he wasn't a devout catholic and why he didn't go to church all the time like the rest of the people. I had been questioning God lately because I was hearing things and I was just lost. Now, Luis wasn't the worst man in the world and hated God. He went to church on holidays and special occassions. He just didn't go every Sunday. He looked at me, chuckled a little, and smiled. He starts telling me a story. He says that one day him and my dad were out on his private land all the way out by the Reservation, just drinking and having fun. When they went there he usually parked under this tree for shade but for some reason he didn't. And he never brought the cooler that leaked but he just happened to that day. So they stayed the night and the next morning got up really early because he had promised his wife he'd be home in time to take her to church. They were packing up and when he went to put the cooler away he saw a puddle from where the cooler had leaked. He never knew why but-"

"I don't practice Santeria. I ain't got no crystal ball..." fills the room and she checks her phone.

"Who is it?" I ask her, thinking it was her mom trying to get a hold of me because I had to go pick her up from work.

"A text from my friend. I'll text them later." She says, putting her phone on silent.

I smile as she throws the phone on the other end of the bed.

"Keep going Daddy." She says to me with that smile that has always melted my heart.

Those big cheeks and gap tooth take me back.

"Okay mija.. He never knew why but he started digging. He felt something and grabbed it. He pulled out a little gold cross. The day before his wife had been nagging him about going to church more and about the only way God knew he was listening was if he went to church all the time. He had been thinking about what she said and finally came to this conclusion. If God really heard him and knew he believed, then he would give Luis a sign. So when he found that cross it showed him that God knew he believed and that God was listening to him.

When he told me this, I understood. He said,

"Esiquio, you don't need to be a devout catholic for God to hear you and know you believe. You just have to live your life the best way you think and you just have to believe. That's the most important thing. Believing. If you don't believe in anything what do you really have?"

It was like an epiphany for me. That day I knew I could be a good Catholic without having to devote my life and all my time to church. I believed and God knew. That was good enough for me. And now when something happens or when i'm going through something, like when everything happened with the family or when you were in the hospital, I think of this story and I tell myself that he's listening and he's going to get me through whatever it is. He's going to get us through everything together."

When I finish she looks at me, her eyes bigger and sparklier then ever. She smiles and hugs me.

"Thank you, Daddy." She says as she lets go.

"Go do what you have to do." I tell her.

"Okay." She says. She gets up and leaves the room. The look in her eyes let me know she didn't have questions anymore, at that moment everything was clear. She was touched by it and I knew. I smile to myself, knowing I helped her.

The story helped her the way it helped me...

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><p><span>Explanation<span>

I wrote this story in first person view. I wanted to because I thought it would be cool to be my dad. To make up what he's thinking and basically control his thoughts. The story is about this guy he knew when he was younger. I put my twists in it and made up some stuff but hey, that's the beauty of storytelling. I chose to have my dad tell me a story because I love hearing him talk. He's my mentor and the person I look up to so when he talks I just drown out everything else because I feel like he's going to say something important i'm going to miss. I chose to tell my dad's story because I feel like I learned something from him telling me so I want to say why he influences me and the way he does.


End file.
